John Prine to Release Duets Album Featuring Kacey Musgraves, Miranda Lambert and More

John Prine is one of the greatest lyricists and storytellers in American music. And now, we’ve got a whole boatload of new duets from him to look forward to.

For Better, Or Worse, Prine’s 23rd career studio release, will include collaborations with Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves, Lee Ann Womack and Morgane Stapleton.

Prine recorded his first duets album in 1999 called In Spite of Ourselves. According to an interview with NPR, his wife tricked him into recording his second.

“My wife is my manager now, and my son runs the record company,” Prine tells NPR. “They told me they were putting out a vinyl version of In Spite of Ourselves, and they’d have to use two records to get all of the songs on, so there’d be an empty fourth side. So if I could go record five or six new duet songs for the bonus tracks, that would be perfect. So I went and did five and said, ‘Here you go.’ They said, ‘Why don’t you do another eight or nine? You’d have a new record.’ So I got tricked into it, but I’m glad.”

The only two returning duet partners from the first go around are his wife Fiona and Iris DeMent.

Prine says he just loves hearing the play between a male and a female voice on a country song. The always funny writer notes you can also include a good sense of humor in country duets.

It’s not surprising that Prine gathered such a great crop of duet partners. When Bob Dylan calls you one of his favorite artists, you know you can command some attention.

The album drops on September 30, and you can bet we’ll be sharing some of our favorite moments from it with you.